Friday, April 21, 2017

I Kept My Word

See: Trump's Kept PromiseA scam after all, huh? Well, my promise to myself to you was to stay current with each day's Globe. I just spent the morning preparing posts that I won't be getting to while putting up crap. Maybe tomorrow I will get to them (ha-ha).Taking it from the top....

I didn't go in the church today.
"President Trump to nominate Scott Brown as ambassador to New Zealand" by Jim O’Sullivan Globe staff April 20, 2017

President Trump will nominate former US senator Scott Brown to serve as ambassador to New Zealand, the White House said Thursday, a pick that won plaudits from both Democrats and Republicans.

Brown’s nomination will require confirmation by the Senate, but congratulatory messages from his former campaign rivals Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeanne Shaheen signaled that Democrats probably will not worken masse to oppose the pick.

If confirmed, Brown, who served 35 years in the Army National Guard, would take an ambassadorship to a key US ally. New Zealand for decades has collaborated with the United States as part of the so-called Five Eyes alliance, which also includes Canada, Great Britain, and Australia.Five Eyes? What's that?(Answer: it's the five government cross-surveillance system that has been around since the 1980s)

After the initial report of Brown’s potential appointment to New Zealand, the press there made light of the modeling he did in his youth. “Man tipped for US ambassador role in NZ a former nude model who supports waterboarding,” read a headline in the New Zealand Herald....That's true, and word from the alternative media is that New Zealanders feel insulted by this lightweight of a pick that knows nothing of them.

White House officials, craving progress, push revised health billSo not only were we deceived again about the death of the health bill repeal, there is a far more urgent deadline: Much of the federal government will run out of money. Reaching agreement on a measure to keep the government open past midnight that Friday will be the first priority of Republican leaders when Congress returns Monday from a two-week spring recess.WTF were they doing on a vacation while the government was running out of money?As for the health bill, "the legislation’s future is unclear. In recent weeks, the insurance companies have been strongly urging the Trump administration and Congress to commit to funding cost-sharing reductions, warning that without the money from the government, the companies will have to sharply raise the prices of their plans offered through the state marketplaces. Some insurers have hinted they will leave the markets altogether without the funding."The Obamacare implosion we were told about.American, Russian cheered as they reach space stationWhat happens if war breaks out with the Russians? They kill the American?Coulter vows to hold Berkeley event despite university cancellationMaybe she should turn around.

"Once critical of global deals, Trump is slow to pull out of any" by Matthew Lee and Josh Lederman Associated Press April 21, 2017

WASHINGTON — From NAFTA to the Iran nuclear agreement to the Paris climate accord, President Trump’s campaign rhetoric is colliding with the reality of governing, as Trump’s past criticism turns to tacit embrace of several key elements of US foreign policy [and] his administration has quietly laid the groundwork to honor the international architecture of deals it has inherited.

Even as Trump railed Thursday against the North American Free Trade Agreement, there was little indication he was pushing for wholesale changes. As a candidate, Trump threatened to jettison the pact with Mexico and Canada unless he could substantially renegotiate it in America’s favor.He's already crossed the border on NAFTA, too?

‘‘The fact is, NAFTA, whether it’s Mexico or Canada, is a disaster for our country,’’ Trump said Thursday during an event on steel imports. Of a dispute with Canada over dairy exports, he added: ‘‘We’re not going to let it happen.’’It's what everyone is talking about, and do his words ever ring hollow (in record time for a new president).

Yet Trump’s administration has been focused on marginal changes that would preserve much of the existing agreement, according to draft guidelines that Trump’s trade envoy sent to Congress. To the dismay of NAFTA critics, the proposal preserves a controversial provision that lets companies challenge national trade laws through private tribunals.

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University, said Trump may be allowing himself to argue in the future that existing deals can be improved without being discarded. ‘‘That allows him to tell his base that he’s getting a better deal than Bush or Obama got, and yet reassure these institutions that it’s really all being done with a nod and a wink, that Trump doesn’t mean what he says,’’ Brinkley said.We can all see that now. More interested in marketing his office than running the country.

On NATO, Trump has completely backed off from his assertions that the treaty organization is ‘‘obsolete.’’ His Cabinet members have fanned out to foreign capitals to show America’s support for the alliance, and his administration now describes the 28-nation body as a pillar of Western security.

So far, there’s been no major revolt from Trump supporters....They obviously don't read the alternative media and are blind. Trump voters and supporters are furious about having been conned -- even Oliver Stone.

Related:"The Environmental Protection Agency is again moving to derail Obama-era regulations aimed at reducing pollution from the fossil-fuel industry. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced Wednesday that he has ordered a 90-day delay for oil and gas companies to follow a new rule requiring them to monitor and reduce methane leaks from their facilities. Pruitt said the agency will now reconsider the 2016 measure, which the companies were required to comply with by this June. It is the latest in a slew of actions by Pruitt to set aside environmental regulations opposed by corporate interests. The American Petroleum Institute and other industry groups petitioned Pruitt to scrap the requirement. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, causing up to 100 times more global warming than the same amount of carbon dioxide."Never you mind the water that burns or the earthquakes where there were none before.

Last month, seven counties in West Virginia, which has the highest prescription drug overdose rate in the nation, filed suits against many of the same corporations. Those suits accuse the companies of creating a public hazard by shipping large amounts of drugs into the state and seek billions of dollars in reimbursements for the economic toll the drugs have taken in the heart of Appalachia.

In Oklahoma, prescription opioid abuse has been particularly pernicious, Cherokee officials said. The members of the nation, which endured the forced removal of its people between 1830 and 1850 from the Southeast during what is known as the Trail of Tears, are more prone to addiction than other populations, according to studies cited by the officials.21st-century Trail of Tears?

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the accusations, which stemmed from the Panama Papers that were leaked last year, revealed that three of Sharif’s children controlled shell companies through which they owned expensive residential properties in London. The revelations set off political turmoil, as opposition parties accused Sharif of financial wrongdoing and money- laundering, which he and his family denied.Rulers are all the $ame no matter where you live.

The Internal Revenue Service is about to start using four private debt-collection companies to chase down overdue payments from hundreds of thousands of people who owe money to the federal government, a job it has handled in-house for years. Unlike IRS agents, who are not usually allowed to call delinquent taxpayers by telephone, the outside debt-collection agencies will have free rein to do so. Consumer watchdogs are fearful that some of the nation’s most vulnerable taxpayers will be harassed and that criminals will take advantage of the system by phoning people and impersonating IRS collectors. Additionally, one of the companies hired by the IRS, Pioneer Credit Recovery, a subsidiary of Navient, was effectively fired two years ago by the Education Department for misleading borrowers about their loans at what the department called “unacceptably high rates.”

Those loans were devised to fail(?), and it's corporate fa$ci$m through and through. They going to start in Switzerland?

Unilever, which rebuffed a $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft Heinz Co. earlier this year, is betting that condiments can help reenergize its business. The household-products giant, whose portfolio includes Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, agreed to buy Sir Kensington’s, which makes natural and non-GMO ketchup and eggless mayo. The price was about $140 million, a person familiar with the transaction said. The European company has acquired other young brands, aiming to freshen its image and move into faster-growing markets. In 2016, it bought Seventh Generation Inc., a Vermont-based maker of natural and environmentally conscious cleaning products, and Dollar Shave Club, a subscription toiletry-delivery business popular with millennials. Sir Kensington’s vegan mayo is made from aquafaba, an ingredient that’s caught on with consumers switching to more ecofriendly foods.Tastes like sh**....

Alcoa Corp. is moving its global headquarters — but very few jobs — back to Pittsburgh, where the 129-year-old company had been based until moving to New York City in 2006. Alcoa has maintained offices in Pittsburgh, and 10 of the 15 employees at its New York headquarters will move to Pennsylvania effective Sept. 1, spokeswoman Joyce Saltzman said Thursday. The other five New York workers will telecommute. Alcoa has 205 employees in Pittsburgh who share a building with Arconic, a spinoff created when Alcoa split its mining, refining, and aluminum businesses in November from businesses that make aluminum parts for aerospace, automotive, and other industries.

That what they make the car out of?

Tesla Inc. recalled 53,000 Model S and Model X vehicles to replace electronic parking brakes that may not release properly. Vehicles assembled between February and October last year contain a small gear that could have been manufactured improperly by Tesla’s supplier. If that gear were to break, the parking brake could become stuck in place, the company said. Only a ‘‘very small percentage’’ were manufactured improperly, the company said, adding it hasn’t seen ‘‘a single accident or injury’’ relating to the brake issue. Meanwhile a group of vehicle owners sued Tesla, claiming its autopilot feature is “dangerously defective” when engaged. In a complaint filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, Calif., consumers allege their cars — purchased for $81,000 to $113,000 — veer off lanes while often “lurching, slamming on the brakes for no reason, and failing to slow or stop when approaching other vehicles” when autopilot is activated.You smell something?Really makes you look forward to the driverless cars, 'eh?

C2:GM operations in Venezuela are seized as protests swell.... The move came amid violent street protests against the government of President Nicolás Maduro and a deepening economic crisis fueled by the country’s heavy foreign debt and the retreat of world oil prices, slashing Venezuela’s main source of income. The particulars of the dispute were murky."Like I keep saying, U.S.-initiated coup underway after bringing the economy to its knees.

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